The Black Parade
by Nynette Vafareil
Summary: Another marcher is added to the Black Parade. Based off of My Chemical Romance's album, The Black Parade.


**A/N: First story...I wrote this as a project for school. as you can tell from the title, it's based on the album by My Chemical Romance. I own nothing, and reviews are greatly appreciated!**_  
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_Beep…Beep…Beep…_

The slow, periodic noise of the heart monitor sent sharp pangs into the ear of a young woman, the sound akin to that of a death knell. She sat upon that bed for days, her only companion being the incessant beeping noise. Occasionally her family or doctors would come in, only to leave shortly after, shaking their heads in pity. She had come to expect it, and it was (along with the often dead-and-forgotten flowers on her bedside table) a fixity in her new life. While sitting here for every hour of every day, she often wondered if the doctors were actually trying to efface her instead of heal her. The dire thought was always creeping at the frayed edges of her mind, never quite gone, even when she entered what she had once known as sleep. It was an interminable thing, and seemed to think it was her new traveling companion.

Her tired eyes were shut all the time now; she didn't bother to open them. She knew what she would see. The same old white walls and drab curtains. Everything stank with the acute scent of antiseptic and lost hope. She wondered why anyone even bothered to come and visit her; they always followed the same pattern. They would enter the jail cell of a room and try to converse with her. When she didn't respond, they would begin to gesticulate, moving their hands in an effort to give her the gist of what they were saying. Eventually they would give up, blowing out a frustrated breath as they left her prison home. They came as often as every other day, though recently their visits had dwindled away, leaving her lonesome and bitter.

It was one of these days. The doctors had come and gone and the nurses were wandering around, visiting those who still had the optimism to pray for health. She had curled up into something resembling the fetal position when she perceived eyes looking upon her. Her sheets were wrapped around her form, and she poked her head out to see who was there. It was the figure of a young man, dressed in a high-collared uniform with burnished accessories affixed on, accompanied by a dull kind of white-silver hair. As she started at him, she noticed that the edges of his form almost flickered, and flashed between what she saw and a skeleton. He had been looking around the room when his eyes caught sight of her now somewhat upright form. He shifted his weight off of the wall and turned to look at her. Her breath caught in her throat as she looked at his face. It was a caricature, an odd mixture of a skull and what he must have once looked like. This devilish face split into a rather disturbing rendition of a smile and spoke.

"How quickly time flies by, doesn't it?" his voice was steady, but there was a malicious sort of humor at the edges of it.

"I suppose so," the woman replied, still wary of the strange man. She didn't quite trust him yet, and his hellish face wasn't helping the cause. She wanted to know what exactly he was doing here, but was too nervous to even try and solicit an answer.

He laughed. It was a ringing, maniacal sound. It pierced her eardrums like nothing before, leaving her wishing she could clap her hands over her ears, yet for some reason, she couldn't move. The laughing stopped abruptly; he seemed to have noticed her discomfort.

"What?" He asked. Her ears were still ringing from his laughing; his strong howl had rebutted any misconceptions she had formed about his strength.

Not one to lie, she replied "your…laugh. It's a bit unsettling." He didn't respond, still giggling in amusement. She didn't like the feeling she got from him. It was an omnipotent, somewhat psychotic feeling. He held himself like everyone else in the roof was a tenderfoot at everything, so full and sure of himself. She had hated people like that, once upon a time. Now, she welcomed anyone into her prison room, desperate and hungry for human company.

"Don't look like that," he said suddenly, taking her by surprise and ripping her out of her thoughts.

"Like what?"

"Like a caged animal." He responded. "I'm not gonna hurt you. Not more than life's done already."

She sat there, mildly stunned. Not one person had ever said anything like that since she had come here. No one had dared to tell her the ineffable truth that she so desperately craved. She decided she liked this man. Anyone who spoke so bluntly could only speak the truth. That was something she had known for a while. In addition to that, he also served as a kind of embrasure, an opening into what the rest of the world was like. Even so, his first remark still stung.

"I do _not_ look like that," she muttered, giving him a dark look. He grinned, (still a rather disturbing sight) but she was a little more used to it now (even if it did unsettle her just a bit). He chuckled darkly, before standing up straight in a rather final kind of way.

"Well, now that the introductions are over," he straightened his uniform, "we'd better get going."

"What?"

"Come on, come on. We don't have all day!"

"Where are we going?"

"That, my dear," he smiled, and it made the blood freeze in her veins. "Is for you to figure out."

Kate sat in the car, staring out the window as they drove away from the hospital. Her family had just received news that her sister, Alice, had passed away from terminal cancer. It hadn't really surprised any of them. They all knew what was going to happen. Alice had wasted away by just sitting there, nothing to do, no one to see. Even if she did get out of the hospital, Kate doubted Alice would forgive any of them for putting her there in the first place. She often wondered if, given the chance, Alice would have chosen to secede from this life instead of go on. Kate thought it was the kind of thing she would do. She thought of her sister now, remembered her practical face and lustrous hair. Even though they hadn't been close, Kate would miss her younger sister. She thought of the few memories they shared as she popped a grape into her mouth and pressed her forehead against the window. Her eyes widened as she caught sight of a pair of figures. They seemed to be making their way across a nearby bridge, and were almost over it. There was something resembling smoke trailing after them, obscuring their figures enough so that Kate couldn't quite see who it was. From what she could see, however, it looked like a man and a woman. Kate noticed the man was wearing a kind of black marching band uniform with a high collar and burnished accessories, accompanied by a kind of dull white-silver hair…


End file.
